Poor Opening Leads By Brent Manley

Source: www.qldbridge.com

You, West, are on lead against 3NT after partner opened the bidding with 1. You hold Q 7 6. What is your choice? If you selected the 6, you may wish to skip today’s article.

Unfortunately, I have seen many inexperienced players start with the queen. This is disastrous when partner holds  A 10 9 8 4 and declarer K J 5. Declarer is entitled to one trick in the heart suit, but the lead of the queen has given him a double stopper. If third hand plays low, declarer will win the king and later lead up to the jack. It’s different if West starts with the 6. Partner can win the ace and return the suit. Declarer will probably play the jack, which will be taken by the queen. A third heart will establish two more tricks for East.

Even if declarer guesses to play the king, blocking the suit (opening leader cannot play the Q because the J would then be good), West may be able to get in, cash the Q and reach partner’s hand in another suit. Say this is the layout of the diamond suit against a suit contract:

Leading the 2 allows East to win the ace and continue with the J, trapping South’s queen. Declarer takes no tricks in diamonds. The lead of the king will establish the Q for a trick declarer should not take. As you gain experience, you will be able to recognize the rare occasion when it’s right to lead the king from three or more to the honour. For now, content yourself with leading low. It will be the correct lead the vast majority of the time. Continuing with the topic of opening leads, be sure to discuss with partner your opening lead style when he has overcalled or opened the bidding and you are leading his suit (always good for partnership harmony).

Say your left-hand opponent opened 1, partner overcalled 1 and RHO bid 1, eventually landing in 4. Here are two scenarios when you hold 8-6-3.

(1) You had enough high-card strength to boost partner to 2 over RHO’s 1 bid.

(2) You didn’t have enough to raise partner’s overcall.

Is there a difference in what you lead in the two situations? Absolutely.

In the first situation, you should lead the 8, alerting partner that you have a poor holding (no honour) because you would lead low with at least one face card in the suit. Partner will use this information to help with the defensive game plan. After all, if partner knows you have a poor heart holding but raised anyway, he will infer correctly that you have high-card strength elsewhere in your hand.

In the second situation, you must lead a low heart. If you start with the 8, partner may play you for a doubleton and try to give you a ruff. That could be embarrassing if the defensive timing is screwed up or declarer gets a ruff-sluff.

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